No Year of the Cat by Mary Dodson Wade Read Free Book Online Page B

why, to this day, she stalks her enemy, determined to repay Rat’s treachery.
    And so it is, that among the auspicious years that people recall, there is no Year of the Cat.

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    Author’s Note
    The Chinese calendar is based on a cycle of twelve years. Each year is named for an animal. When the cycle is completed, the names start again in the same order.
    The author found this story while on a visit to Taiwan. It was in a book entitled Traditional Chinese Folktales by Yin-lien C. Chin, Yetta S. Center, and Mildred Ross, published by M. E. Sharpe (1989). Stories in that book had been translated from the Chinese. Some of them date from the Yuan Dynasty in the thirteenth century.
    The basic story explaining why there is no Year of the Cat is a familiar one in the Chinese culture, but the author has added many details in this version.